Mulcair pushes the panic button

Boom! That was the sound of Twitter exploding this week after Justice Minister Peter MacKay made some thoughtless remarks about the slaughter of fourteen female students at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1989 — suggesting that “we may never understand … why these women were singled out for this horrific act of violence.”

Actually, we understand quite well why the victims of the Montreal Massacre were targeted: Killer Marc Lépine left a rambling letter denouncing the feminists “who have always ruined my life”.

MacKay later told reporters that he was referring to “the insanity and the level of violence” in the case. That rang a tad hollow, coming from a party that doesn’t put much stock in theories about “root causes” of crime. In a testy exchange with Thomas Mulcair in question period, MacKay also accused the NDP leader of politicizing the anniversary.

Cue the second explosion: The next day, Mulcair resurrected the idea of a national gun registry — though the NDP isn’t explicitly calling it that. Under the NDP plan, anyone owning a firearm would be required to fill out a form, allowing police to track every gun in Canada. The NDP also would impose limits on the type of firearms Canadians could own.

“What kind of duck do you hunt with an assault weapon? A pterodactyl?” Mulcair quipped — having forgotten, apparently, that some of his own MPs voted to make the gun registry extinct in April 2012.

The NDP will get pushback from rural ridings. The Tories will leap on this as a fundraising opportunity. And the Liberals will accuse Mulcair of dividing Canadians as Trudeau seeks to unite them.

Why resurrect this policy, and why now? First, the NDP is hunting for new wedge issues. It already has opposed the Tories on involvement in the fight against Islamic State. It presented a vision on child care quite different from the government’s Family Tax Cut approach. It is setting itself up as the primary foil for the Tories — and the natural home for voters who want to get rid of them. The Liberals have said they will not resurrect the gun registry because it was too divisive — the very reason the NDP finds the policy so attractive.

Second, Mulcair is desperate to defend Fortress Quebec. Most of the party’s caucus comes from Quebec; without those seats, it can forget about retaining Official Opposition status, let alone having a shot at government. The federal long gun registry was so popular in Quebec that former premier Jean Charest took Ottawa to court over Quebec’s right to keep provincial data collected by the feds. Ultimately it lost, but the idea retains a great deal of support in the province. Mulcair has said that a new system would allow both federal and provincial governments to keep track of guns — a clear nod to Quebec and the pro-registry vote there.

Third, Mulcair is battling Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for the title of Women’s Best Friend. After banning pro-life candidates earlier this year, Trudeau upped the ante last month by expelling from caucus two male Liberal MPs accused of sexual harassment and assault by two female NDP MPs. Mulcair and the two women, who remain anonymous, responded by saying they didn’t want the situation made public; Trudeau shot back that, as party leader, he had no choice.

The whole affair has degenerated into a partisan mess with no end — and no justice — in sight. Pledging to bring back some type of gun registration gives Mulcair a chance to talk about women’s safety in a more positive and proactive light.

There are pitfalls, however, to resurrecting a policy that was nothing more than a costly failure. There is no great groundswell of support out there for bringing back the gun registry — especially now that crime is at its lowest level in forty years. There’s no money, either: This year’s surplus has been swallowed by the Family Tax Cut, and next year’s is on the bubble due to falling oil prices.

The NDP will get pushback from rural ridings, especially in Ontario. The Tories will leap on this as a fundraising opportunity, further padding their election war chest. And the Liberals will accuse Mulcair of dividing Canadians as Trudeau seeks to unite them.

But for a party running a consistent third in the polls, there aren’t many good options. As the prime minister’s personal stock rises and rumours of a spring election swirl, the NDP figures it had better get ahead of the Liberals with some concrete ideas — even if they’re just taking out the recycling.

Tasha Kheiriddin is a political writer and broadcaster who frequently comments in both English and French. In her student days, Tasha was active in youth politics in her hometown of Montreal, eventually serving as national policy director and then president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation of Canada. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. Tasha moved back to Montreal in 2006 and served as vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute, and later director for Quebec of the Fraser Institute, while also lecturing on conservative politics at McGill University. Tasha now lives in Whitby, Ontario with her daughter Zara, born in 2009.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

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Tasha Kheiriddin is a well-known political writer and broadcaster. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. She now hosts a show on Toronto's Talk Radio AM640.